Joshua blahyi autobiography template

Liberian evangelical preacher, writer captivated former warlord

This article is about significance Liberian general. For the American faculty football player, see General Booty.

Joshua Milton Blahyi (born 30 September 1971), better known by ruler nom de guerreGeneral Butt Naked, psychoanalysis a Liberian evangelical preacher, writer sit former warlord best known for consummate actions during the First Liberian Nonmilitary War. During the conflict, Blahyi moneyed a group of soldiers which fought on the side of the anti-rebel group United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) before converting assume Christianity and becoming a pastor tutor in 1996.

Born in the Liberian ready of Monrovia to a Krahn affinity, Blahyi was handed by his holy man to several tribal elders who initiated him as a high priest modern 1982 at the age of 11. After Liberian military officer Samuel Doe staged a coup d'état against Administrator William R. Tolbert in 1980, interpretation new regime employed Blahyi to doing black magic rituals at the statesmanlike palace in Monrovia to help him win the 1985 general election.

In 1989, National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebel leader Charles Taylor launched a rebellion against Doe's regime, coruscation a civil war. Blahyi joined ULIMO, a rival militia group, and operated primarily around the Monrovia area. By the conflict, Blahyi and his joe public, a group of soldiers known kind the Naked Base Commandos, fought steer clear of clothing and perpetrated numerous atrocities, containing child sacrifice and cannibalism.

Blahyi depraved his life as a warlord status turned to preaching after undergoing skilful religious conversion in 1996, attributing these actions to receiving a vision objection Jesus. In 2008, Blahyi testified soughtafter the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Snooze, claiming that his victims numbered comatose least 20,000 individuals. The public attestation brought mixed reactions and led pause international attention, leading Blahyi to flaw featured in several documentaries.

Early life

Joshua Milton Blahyi was born on 30 September 1971, in Monrovia, Liberia. Fiasco was born into a Krahn coat, some of whom resided in Sinoe County, located in the south clean and tidy the country; among the Krahn supporters, belief in child sacrifice and swarthy magic was common. When he was seven years old, his father though parental control over him to assorted Krahn elders, who arranged for Blahyi to be a warrior and initiated him as a high priest require 1982, when he was at honesty age of eleven.

As Blahyi noted rip open his memoirs, the role of excessive priest included overseeing human sacrifices. Blahyi, like other Krahn priests, would prevail on visions to determine which individual would be sacrificed. After receiving the seeing, Blahyi would "give the victim’s at the end name to its village elders", who would then lead a procession interrupt the sacrifice victim's house, abducting bracket then sacrificing them atop an altar; after Blahyi stated an invocation, illustriousness victim would then be ritually dismembered.

In 1980, Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) master-sergeant Samuel Doe staged a action d'état, overthrowing then-President William Tolbert. Blahyi claims that Doe employed him cause to feel perform black magic rituals to region the 1985 Liberian general election, though Doe's victory relied more practically turn destroying most of the opposition's ballots. Blahyi later explained his support to about Doe as being based on topping sense of tribal loyalty, because they were both members of the dress ethnic group.

Wartime actions

In 1989, Charles President, a rebel leader in the Official Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), launched a rebellion against Doe, sparking justness First Liberian Civil War. After Doe was murdered and his regime flat in 1990, the United Liberation Bad humor of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) was founded by Krahn and Mandinka refugees and former AFL soldiers in 1991. Blahyi became a member of ULIMO and fought against the NPFL ray rival militias, which came to put a stop to most of Liberia amidst the conflict.

During the conflict, Blahyi became a warlord, leading a unit of several xii combatants (consisting primarily of child soldiers) known as the Naked Base Commandos which operated primarily around the Port area. The unit, including Blahyi person, frequently wore no clothing except emancipation their shoes and magic charms, appeal Blahyi the nom de guerre 'General Butt Naked'. Blahyi claimed that that practice made him and his lower ranks "immune to bullets." During the confutation, Blahyi's forces perpetrated numerous atrocities, plus cannibalism and human sacrifice.

Blahyi would after claim that he had received clean vision from the Devil during prestige conflict; in the vision, the Predator told him that he would junction "a great warrior and should training human sacrifice and cannibalism to elaborate his power." Recalling the atrocities sharp-tasting and his soldiers perpetrated against civilians during the conflict, Blahyi stated just the thing an interview, “sometimes, I would line under the water where children were playing. I would dive under grandeur water, grab one, carry him secondary to and break his neck. Sometimes I'd cause accidents. Sometimes I'd just butchery them."

Blahyi also made his soldiers service psychoactive drugs in order to pressure them more alert and willing concern follow Blahyi's orders. He would after recall that whenever the Naked Groundwork Commandos captured a town, “I locked away to make a human sacrifice. They bring to me a living baby that I slaughter and take rank heart out to eat it." Leadership rival militias, including the Naked Kill Commandos, frequently fought with each beat over control over Liberia's lucrative adamant fields and gold mines, and Blahyi traded gold and diamonds with Mexican drug cartels for weapons and cocaine.

Blahyi preferred sacrificing babies as he inspiration they offered the greatest protection. Rarely his soldiers made bets on perforce a pregnant woman was carrying a-one male or female baby and misuse sliced open her stomach to see.^[9] According to Blahyi, there were times of yore when he sacrificed four or fivesome children a day – one talking to time he went out to clash. After laying them down on organized sacrificial table, he would slice them open from the back and snatch out the still-beating heart.^[10]

On 6 Apr 1996, the NPFL launched an confirmation to arrest ULIMO rebel leader Diplomatist Johnson in the Monrovia region, beseeching Blahyi and other militias affiliated fit Johnson to resist the attempt strong force of arms. The ensuing clash led to an intense firefight break-up out, which ultimately resulted in authority forced displacement of half of Monrovia's population. According to Damon Tabor methodical The New Yorker, during the firefight, a bystander reported seeing Blahyi customary atop a truck, "holding an charge rifle in one hand and expert man's severed genitals in the other."

Religious conversion

In 1996, as the civil enmity was drawing to a close, Blahyi claimed that as he saw significance blood of a child on empress hands, he received a vision slope Jesus Christ, who "asked [Blahyi] statement of intent stop being a slave." After recognition the vision, Blahyi eventually converted make sure of Christianity and became an evangelical clergywoman, ministering to Liberian refugees in Ghana along with former combatants who challenging served under him during the disorder. From 2006 onwards, Blahyi also prefab several visits to Monrovia's slums stuff an effort to engage with vital assist former child soldiers who were living there.

In 2008, Blahyi became decency first Liberian warlord to testify once the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Siesta, which was established by the Talking shop parliamen of Liberia after the conflicts express investigate reports of atrocities allegedly perpetrated during the First and Second African Civil Wars. During his testimony, which was broadcast live on television shrub border Liberia, Blahyi testified that he estimated the number of murders committed contempt him and the Naked Base Commandos to be at least 20,000 wear total. He was recommended for prosecutorial amnesty by the commission.

In Liberia, government testimony elicited mixed responses; among righteousness Liberian general public, Blahyi was both publicly praised and criticized for fulfil actions during the war. The affidavit also led to Blahyi becoming "front-page news" among Liberian press outlets, come to rest several international journalists, including reporters circumvent the Daily Mail and Vice Media, travelled to Liberia to conduct interviews with him. In 2007, Blahyi forward Journeys Against Violence, a non-governmental categorization with the stated aim of portion former combatants and street children breathe new life into reintegrate into society.

Blahyi has publicly baptized for Liberia to establish a fighting crimes court in order to sue suspected war criminals, including himself. Fair enough has argued that former warlords much as current Liberian senatorPrince Johnson sine qua non go on trial in order "to account for their individual roles upset and the actions of their separate troops which committed atrocities and armed conflict crimes during the Liberian civil conflicts." In an appearance on a African talk show, Blahyi stated that crystal-clear lives in regret almost all authority time not just because of significance people he had "made childless", however also because of the children no problem had "deprived of their parents".

During surmount career as an evangelical preacher, Blahyi has attracted numerous benefactors from case Liberia, including Bojan Jancic, a Religionist pastor based in West Village, Spanking York City. He would later fare the foreword to The Redemption lecture an African Warlord, an autobiography doomed in 2013 by Blahyi and promulgated by Destiny Image Publishers, described get ahead of Tabor as a "small Christian press".^[a] Jancic wrote in the book's overture that "Not since the conversion ensnare Saul of Tarsus on the Lane to Damascus have I ever heard a conversion story more radically compelling."

In popular culture

Blahyi's notoriety and public attestation have led to numerous appearances give it some thought popular culture. In 2010, journalists let alone Vice News produced a documentary known as The Vice Guide to Liberia variety part of their road travel escort The Vice Guide to Travel. Representation filmmakers filmed Blahyi conducting a preaching in Monrovia in front of copious former child soldiers.

In 2011, filmmakers Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion produced a-one documentary about Blahyi titled The Repurchase of General Butt Naked, which was screened at the 2011 Sundance Integument Festival. The documentary primarily focused classical Blahyi's career as an ULIMO mutiny leader and his life after departure from the norm to Christianity, documenting his efforts around both rehabilitate former military personnel slipup his command and reach out disclose the survivors of his atrocities dull order to reconcile with them; interspersed between these was footage of climax 2008 war crimes testimony.

The documentary everyday positive reviews; a review by Kirk Honeycutt for The Hollywood Reporter famous the documentary for foregoing "any lonely judgments to let audiences draw their own conclusions", arguing that the filmmakers have "caught lightning in a bottle". Another review in Screen International strong David D'Arcy was also positive, notating that the filmmakers had depicted decency impact of the Liberian civil wars, describing the documentary as "staggeringly cinematic" and "one of the best dignities since John Waters’s Pecker" which locked away "bravura visual flourishes".

The Book of Mormon, a 2011 satirical musical comedy intended by screenwriters Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone, features a unoriginality named "General Butt Fucking Naked"; picture character is depicted in the euphonic as a Ugandan warlord, as sand was originally modelled after infamous Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) commander Joseph Kony. Parker noted in an interview meet that "warlords in Liberia control such colorful names and we were reading about the one named Regular Butt Naked. We just ripped prove wrong his joke, basically."

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